Numbers

Tight natural gas and shale gas boosted British Columbia’s (BC) reserves numbers to record levels from 2009 to 2010, and more gains are expected as development continues, according to the province’s energy regulator.

Wednesday’s market was something of a mirror image of the one on Tuesday, with a majority of locations shifting to reverse gear. Flat numbers were common again, but while small gains had dominated Tuesday, more points were recording small increases Wednesday. Heating load is relatively scarce at this point as most areas experience a fairly mild prelude to the official start of winter, and traders were mindful of the upcoming storage report being bearish in comparison to year-ago and five-year average withdrawals.

The cash market recorded a mix of gains and losses Tuesday, but bulls were slightly in the ascendancy as flat to higher numbers tended to be both more numerous and have larger increases than the falling ones, all of which were in single digits.

When it comes to ethane projects in the Marcellus Shale, MarkWest Energy Partners LP believes there is strength in numbers, the company said in a quarterly conference call last Tuesday.

When it comes to ethane projects in the Marcellus Shale, MarkWest Energy Partners LP believes there is strength in numbers, the company said in a quarterly conference call on Tuesday.

The United States is the undisputed leader in the development of unconventional natural gas resources. However, much of the rest of the world is on to the shale gas promise and will soon be exploiting its reserves, according to a new analysis by Douglas-Westwood.

Price moves continued to be mixed Tuesday, but this time flat to higher numbers nearly overwhelmed the occasional small loss. Although any potential tropical threat was still remote, the previous day’s 2-cent futures uptick along with scattered moderate increases in both heating and cooling load were enough to firm quotes at nearly all points.

Although the cash market showed a few signs of vitality in moving to near-flat numbers Tuesday following the previous day’s losses at nearly all points, there was little in the near-term outlook to suggest any chances of a substantive rally anytime soon.

The 2011 Atlantic hurricane season, which officially begins June 1, will produce above-normal numbers of tropical storms and is likely to be more damaging to the United States than the 2010 season, which produced a near-record number of storms but had little impact on the coastline and energy industry, according to forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA).